Story highlights

Woman whose partner was on plane says she still is in disbelief that this might be part from MH370

Local journalist says debris had a number on it, but it is unclear what it signifies

Source close to investigation says Boeing officials, looking at photos, see element unique to 777 part

(CNN)Debris found in the western Indian Ocean on Wednesday appears to be part of a Boeing 777, the same model as Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that disappeared in 2014, according to a source close to the investigation.

The source said there is a unique element to the Boeing 777's flaperon, a wing component, that Boeing observers believe they are seeing in photos.

The debris was found Wednesday off the coast of Reunion Island, a French department in the western Indian Ocean. It is being examined to determine whether it is connected to flight MH370, a member of the French air force in Reunion said Wednesday.

The debris was found off the coast of St. Andre, a community on the island, according to Adjutant Christian Retournat.

Boeing officials conducted an initial assessment of the debris using photographs. The source stressed the observations are preliminary.

Police carry a piece of debris from an unidentified aircraft found off the coast of Reunion island.

Read More

K.S. Narendran, whose wife was on the plane, said he was reticent to call the discovery a major development.

"I think this is very early days yet. All we know is that a small part has been found. It is still a little early to suggest it does belong to MH370," he told CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" from India. "I think it is premature to feel that it is all coming to a close or that we are even closer to the truth."

Sarah Bajc, whose partner, Philip Wood, was on MH370, said her "heart has been in my throat for most of the day."

During the initial days of the search for the plane, there were several reports of possible debris sightings in the waters closer to where authorities believe the plane went down, but none of those was actual wreckage. Bajc said as an emotional safety mechanism she disbelieves any reports like Wednesday's discovery.

She wants verification, she told "Anderson Cooper 360˚."

"If ultimately this is the piece of the wing, then that little thread of hope that I have been holding on to will, will have to break. And reality will have to take over," she said holding back tears. "But, yeah, up until now, I and most of the family members have continued to believe that until we have a body ... we can't give up hoping they will still come back."

If this turns out to be a piece of MH370, it would be the first piece of physical evidence that the plane crashed.

Malaysian team en route

Earlier, Retournat said the debris appeared to be a wing flap and had been taken to the island, about 380 nautical miles off the coast of Madagascar.

The Malaysian government has dispatched a team to Reunion Island to investigate the debris, Malaysian Minister of Transportation Liow Tiong Lai said in New York.

"We need to verify. We have wreckage found that needs to be further verified before we can further confirm if it belongs to MH370. So we have dispatched a team to investigate on these issues and we hope that we can identify it as soon as possible," the minister said.

Malaysia Airlines said it was working with authorities to determine where the part came from.

"At the moment, it would be too premature for the airline to speculate on the origin of the flaperon," the carrier said.

CNN analysts said there are indications the airplane part could be from a Boeing 777, and if that's the case, it's likely from MH370.

Making the determination should be "very simple" because the serial numbers riveted to numerous parts of the plane can be linked to not only the plane's model, but also the exact aircraft, said CNN aviation analyst Les Abend, who flew 777s during his 30 years as a pilot.

This means crash investigators may be able to figure it out from photographs of the part, which could be an aileron, a flap or a flaperon, even before arriving on the island, he said.

Several clues

Airplane debris is being examined to see if it's connected to MH370.

There are at least three elements of the discovery that are consistent with MH370, said CNN safety analyst David Soucie. The first is that the part appears to have been torn off the aircraft.

"This is from a sudden impact, it looks like to me," Soucie said.

There also is a seal on the top of the part that "is consistent with what I would see on an inside flap on a triple 7," he said, and the barnacles on the part are consistent with the "parasitic activity" that would take place from being underwater so long.

However, the part appears to be coated in white paint, which would run counter to Soucie's other observations in that the 777's parts would be coated in zinc chromate, not paint. Soucie acknowledged, however, that the part could be coated in something from the ocean.

"If it is a part from a triple 7, we can be fairly confident it is from 370 because there just haven't been that many triple 7 crashes and there haven't been any in this area," said CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo.

Antoine Forestier, a journalist on the island where the debris was found, said people who were on shore gardening saw the plane part drifting in the ocean.

Reporters from Antenne Reunion looked at the debris, which Forestier said was about 2 meters by 1 meter (6.5 feet by 3 feet).

There was a marking "BB670" on the part.

Soucie said he believes the number is a part number, though it might be from a subcontractor.

Drift possibilities

The head of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, the agency tasked by Malaysia with leading the search for MH370, said the piece of debris is "not inconsistent" with drift modeling done by Australian authorities.

"If there was something from MH370 it could have reached Reunion Island from the area we're covering," said ATSB Chief Commissioner Martin Dolan. "It's not inconsistent with the drift modeling we've done. It's not inconsistent with the search area we're covering."

Dolan would not say how likely it was that any debris would move in a westerly direction.

"There's a range of possibilities," he said. "It's not an exact science." Dolan said surface currents, wind direction and how high an object was floating in the water might all play a role.

Photos:The search for MH370

Two years after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing, a relative of one of the passengers burns incense in Beijing on March 8, 2016. Flight 370 vanished on March 8, 2014, as it flew from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing. There were 239 people on board.

Hide Caption

1 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

On July 29, police carry a piece of debris on Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean. A week later, authorities confirmed that the debris was from the missing flight.

Hide Caption

2 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Staff members with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau examine a piece of aircraft debris at their laboratory in Canberra, Australia, on July 20. The flap was found in June by residents on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania, and officials had said it was highly likely to have come from Flight 370. Experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the search for the plane, confirmed that the part was indeed from the missing aircraft.

Hide Caption

3 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

In late February, American tourist Blaine Gibson found a piece of plane debris off Mozambique, a discovery that renewed hope of solving the mystery of the missing flight. The piece measured 35 inches by 22 inches. A U.S. official said it was likely the wreckage came from a Boeing 777, which MH370 was.

Hide Caption

4 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Relatives of the flight's passengers console each other outside the Malaysia Airlines office in Subang, Malaysia, on February 12, 2015. Protesters had demanded that the airline withdraw the statement that all 239 people aboard the plane were dead.

Hide Caption

5 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A police officer watches a couple cry outside the airline's office building in Beijing after officials refused to meet with them on June 11, 2014. The couple's son was on the plane.

Hide Caption

6 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Members of the media scramble to speak with Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, director general of Malaysia's Civil Aviation Department, at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 27, 2014. Data from communications between satellites and the missing flight was released the day before, more than two months after relatives of passengers said they requested it be made public.

Hide Caption

7 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Operators aboard the Australian ship Ocean Shield move Bluefin-21, the U.S. Navy's autonomous underwater vehicle, into position to search for the jet on April 14, 2014.

Hide Caption

8 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks out of a window while searching for debris off the coast of western Australia on April 13, 2014.

Hide Caption

9 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

The HMS Echo, a vessel with the British Roya; Navy, moves through the waters of the southern Indian Ocean on April 12, 2014.

Hide Caption

10 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, on a mission to drop sonar buoys to assist in the search, flies past the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 9, 2014.

Hide Caption

11 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A relative of a missing passenger cries at a vigil in Beijing on April 8, 2014.

Hide Caption

12 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Australian Defense Force divers scan the water for debris in the southern Indian Ocean on April 7, 2014.

Hide Caption

13 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A towed pinger locator is readied to be deployed off the deck of the Australian vessel Ocean Shield on April 7, 2014.

Hide Caption

14 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force looks at a flare in the Indian Ocean during search operations on April 4, 2014.

Hide Caption

15 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

On March 30, 2014, a woman in Kuala Lumpur prepares for an event in honor of those aboard Flight 370.

Hide Caption

16 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

The sole representative for the families of Flight 370 passengers leaves a conference at a Beijing hotel on March 28, 2014, after other relatives left en masse to protest the Malaysian government's response to their questions.

Hide Caption

17 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A member of the Royal Australian Air Force is silhouetted against the southern Indian Ocean during the search for the missing jet on March 27, 2014.

Hide Caption

18 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Flight Lt. Jayson Nichols looks at a map aboard a Royal Australian Air Force aircraft during a search on March 27, 2014.

Hide Caption

19 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

People in Kuala Lumpur light candles during a ceremony held for the missing flight's passengers on March 27, 2014.

Hide Caption

20 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, delivers a statement about the flight on March 24, 2014. Razak's announcement came after the airline sent a text message to relatives saying it "deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH 370 has been lost and that none of those onboard survived."

Hide Caption

21 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Grieving relatives of missing passengers leave a hotel in Beijing on March 24, 2014.

Hide Caption

22 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A passenger views a weather map in the departures terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 22, 2014.

Hide Caption

23 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A Chinese satellite captured this image, released on March 22, 2014, of a floating object in the Indian Ocean, according to China's State Administration of Science. It was a possible lead in the search for the missing plane. Surveillance planes were looking for two objects spotted by satellite imagery in remote, treacherous waters more than 1,400 miles from the west coast of Australia.

Hide Caption

24 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Satellite imagery provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority on March 20, 2014, showed debris in the southern Indian Ocean that could have been from Flight 370. The announcement by Australian officials raised hopes of a breakthrough in the frustrating search.

Hide Caption

25 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Another satellite shot provided by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority shows possible debris from the flight.

Hide Caption

26 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A distraught relative of a missing passenger breaks down while talking to reporters at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 19, 2014.

Hide Caption

27 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

On March 18, 2014, a relative of a missing passenger tells reporters in Beijing about a hunger strike to protest authorities' handling of information about the missing jet.

Hide Caption

28 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

U.S. Navy crew members assist in search-and-rescue operations in the Indian Ocean on March 16, 2014.

Hide Caption

29 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Members of the Chinese navy continue search operations on March 13, 2014. After starting in the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam, the plane's last confirmed location, search efforts expanded west into the Indian Ocean.

Hide Caption

30 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A Vietnamese military official looks out an aircraft window during search operations March 13, 2014.

Hide Caption

31 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Malaysian air force members look for debris near Kuala Lumpur on March 13, 2014.

Hide Caption

32 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Relatives of missing passengers wait for the latest news at a hotel in Beijing on March 12, 2014.

Hide Caption

33 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A member of the Vietnamese air force checks a map while searching for the missing plane on March 11, 2014.

Hide Caption

34 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A Vietnamese air force plane found traces of oil that authorities had suspected to be from the missing Malaysia Airlines plane, the Vietnamese government online newspaper reported on March 8, 2014. However, a sample from the slick showed it was bunker oil, typically used to power large cargo ships, Malaysia's state news agency, Bernama, reported on March 10, 2014.

Hide Caption

35 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter lands aboard the USS Pinckney to change crews on March 9, 2014, before returning to search for the missing plane in the Gulf of Thailand.

Hide Caption

36 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Buddhist monks at Kuala Lumpur International Airport offer a special prayer for the missing passengers on March 9, 2014.

Hide Caption

37 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Members of a Chinese emergency response team board a rescue vessel at the port of Sanya in China's Hainan province on March 9, 2014.

Hide Caption

38 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

The rescue vessel sets out from Sanya in the South China Sea on March 9, 2014.

Hide Caption

39 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, center, arrives to meet family members of missing passengers at the reception center at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on March 8, 2014.

Hide Caption

40 of 43

Photos:The search for MH370

A relative of two missing passengers reacts at their home in Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014.

An international team of experts used satellite data to calculate that the plane eventually went down in the southern Indian Ocean. Search teams have been combing a vast area of the seafloor in the southern Indian Ocean, hunting for traces of the passenger jet, about 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) from where the debris was found.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss told Nine Network Australia that if the debris discovered off Reunion is determined to be from Flight 370, it's "not really going to be all that helpful in pinpointing precisely where the aircraft is."

But he said Thursday that it would provide "further evidence that we're searching in roughly the right place."

The Malaysian government eventually declared the loss of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 an accident and all of its passengers and crew presumed dead.